Thanks! At the moment, it claims to have been successfully reconditioned. I still have the big yellow LED blinking, though, and nowhere in Server Administrator or in System Events do I see a reason. Perhaps I'll have that one RAID 5 member die yet again... -- RMc
Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote on 09/02/2009 02:52:32 PM: > On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 12:39 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dell PE-2550 whose RAID (PERC) > > That's a PERC 3/Di, right? > > > 1. Can the battery be replaced (safely!) with the system still up and > > running? > > Maybe. The manual should know for sure. As I recall, the battery > for the 3/Di is in a cartridge on the side/top of the drive cage, and > has leads to the motherboard from there. So you can get to it by just > removing the system cover; no need to go digging. > > That said, myself, I wouldn't go fscking around with parts of my > RAID card while a system was running. Seems like an unnecessary risk, > even if the battery is easily accessible. > > > 2. If the system must be powered down to replace this battery, what if > > anything is lost (configuration and other settings) while the system is both > > powered down and the battery removed? > > The RAID battery isn't used for config data. It provides power to > RAID cache RAM in the event of loss of power. That way you can have > write cache enabled without worrying about it destroying the integrity > of your journaled filesystems and databases. > > I would suggest disabling write caching on all RAID volumes (i.e., > set to "write through") first, just to make sure the battery isn't > protecting uncommitted writes before you pull the plug. Then turn > same back on after replacement. > > > 3. Is this a fairly standard battery, or must I look for a source for > > archaic Dell parts to get one? > > I don't know what "fairly standard" means to you, but as I recall > it's a Ni-Cad or NiMH, with just two power leads. It's not a "smart" > battery. Finding the form factor might be tricky, but you might be > able to fit something else in there. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
